Facebook says it will double its cyber safety and security staff

The social media giant made the commitment in testimony before US senators who were questioning the company about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections

Colin Stretch, the top Facebook lawyer, explained that the new hires would help track behaviour of extremists on its sites (Getty)

Facebook said it will double its safety and security staff to 20,000, including contract workers, by the end of 2018.

The company made the commitment in testimony before US senators, who were questioning the social-media giant – along with Twitter and Alphabet's Google – about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and the role of online platforms.

Colin Stretch, the top Facebook lawyer, explained that the new hires would help track behaviour of extremists on its sites. The company had just over 20,000 total employees at the end of June.

“We need to understand the behaviour and we need to have the capacity both as a company and as an industry to be able to track it and eradicate it,” Mr Stretch said.

On Tuesday, US senators questioned Mr Stretch on why the company did not flag 2016 election adverts that were bought with Russian rubles.

Mr Stretch was also questioned on why it took the company so long to investigate the adverts and how much information it has on its five million advertisers.

Facebook has said that at least 3,000 political ads were bought by people in Russia and that more than 126 million Americans saw Facebook posts disseminated by Russian-linked agents seeking to influence the 2016 presidential election.

Mr Stetch's testimony came ahead of Facebook's quarterly earnings report on Wednesday.

Bloomberg